farm out, outsourcing

Robots Patrolling Power Lines

By MATTHEW L. WALD

The Electric Power Research Institute hopes to farm out the job of inspecting serious glitches in power lines to robots.

farm out

Assign something to an outsider; subcontract something. For example, The contractor was so busy he had to farm out two jobs to a colleague, or When their mother was hospitalized, the children had to be farmed out to the nearest relatives. This term originally referred to letting or leasing land. Today it usually refers to subcontracting work or the care of a dependent to another. In baseball it means "to assign a player to a lesser (farm) league," as opposed to a big league. [Mid-1600s]

outsourcing

(out'sôr'sĭng, -sōr'-)
n.
The procuring of services or products, such as the parts used in manufacturing a motor vehicle, from an outside supplier or manufacturer in order to cut costs.